Netanyahu has been a bottomless source of unwavering support for Donald Trump in office, not once publicly criticizing the unpredictable and often hateful president. The 71-year-old celebrated nearly every Trump administration’s foreign policy initiative in the Middle East and became its most visible international cheerleader.
With an upcoming election, a third national lockdown and an impending resumption of his corruption trial, Israel’s longest-serving leader must team up with the man who ousted Trump from the Oval Office.
Biden’s relationship with Israel goes back nearly half a century until he met then Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1973 as a freshman senator from Delaware. It has since grown into a “very emotional connection with Israel,” a former Obama administration official told CNN. “He sees Israel through that lens and as a real democracy in a region that is not that characterized.”
Biden and Netanyahu first developed their friendship in the 1980s, when Biden was a young senator who served on the Foreign Relations Committee and Netanyahu served at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC. Over the years, the two men got to know each other, met each other’s families, and kept in touch while Netanyahu rose through politics in 1996 to become Israel’s prime minister.
When Netanyahu lost his election to Ehud Barak three years later, “Biden kept in touch with him, writing him an occasional note, things that politicians wouldn’t normally do,” said a source familiar with the relationship. “I know Bibi appreciated it. Biden didn’t treat him like one has been. ‘ Over the years, Netanyahu stopped by Biden’s office to visit him on his travels to Washington.
But the friendship was put to the test when Biden became Barack Obama’s vice president. Netanyahu infamously gave Obama a lecture on Middle Eastern politics at the White House in 2011 and then presented it in his 2019 election campaign.
When Biden visited Israel in 2010, Netanyahu’s government announced a new settlement in East Jerusalem, which then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called “insulting.”
“The later years of the Obama administration were tough. Some on the team will remember, but [Biden is] will have no interest in fueling tensions, “said a source familiar with the relationship. Netanyahu clashed with Obama during negotiations with the Palestinians, and then more openly about the nuclear deal with Iran.
‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I love you’
But the dynamics have changed.
Long ago, Netanyahu became a political chameleon, shifting from the prime minister who supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a key 2009 speech to the leader who endorsed Trump’s vision for peace in the Middle East a decade later, and who all conventional notion of two states for two peoples. He has led centrist, center-right, and right-wing governments in his 14 years in office, but no period has been as good for him – or as easy for him – as the Trump administration. Trump was Netanyahu’s gift that kept giving.
In return, Netanyahu seemed to be increasingly aligning Israel with the Republican Party, going so far as to name a new settlement in the Golan Heights after the former president, named Trump Heights. When Netanyahu joined Trump in the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accords alongside the Emirati and Bahraini foreign ministers, the Israeli leader did not meet any Democratic politicians.
Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the US and one of those closest to Netanyahu, was a frequent visitor to the White House. Dermer’s tenure ended the day the Biden government took office.
Israeli Minister Tzachi Hanegbi insists that Netanyahu’s policies were never pro-Republican or pro-Democrat, but only tailored to Israel’s needs.
“Our policy is always twofold,” Hanegbi said, “but of course [Netanyahu] was always very satisfied with Trump’s policies. “
“If we will have a good relationship with the Biden government – and we will have a great relationship with the new government – that doesn’t mean we are pro-democracy and anti-Republican,” he said. “The chemistry, the intimacy, the mutual recognition of each other’s passion for their country – these are things that can create credibility for each other’s policies.”
Should Netanyahu treat Biden like a friend or foe?
But Netanyahu is now in the midst of a fourth election campaign in two years, with no guarantee the country can break the cycle of endless elections. Netanyahu took political advantage of the attack on Obama and showed the Israeli public that he had the courage to stand up to an American leader. Now he has to decide if he wants to do this under Biden.
“Netanyahu is a supreme diplomat, but when it comes to the US, he bears the brunt of his almost explicit allegiance to the GOP,” said Dani Dayan, Israel’s former consul general for New York and a candidate for New Hope. -party. Netanyahu’s Likud in the March 23 elections. “Israel’s next prime minister will have to do a lot to restore the bipartisan relationship.”
Netanyahu is under attack by Gideon Sa’ar, an ideological right-wing politician who broke away from Netanyahu’s Likud party to form the New Hope party. Despite Sa’ar’s opposition to territorial concessions and a two-state solution, he has vowed to restore bipartisan support for Israel and position himself as a better partner for Biden.
“I will rebuild Israel’s good and balanced relationships with both sides,” Sa’ar promised during a Zoom meeting with AIPAC. “As Prime Minister, I will work with President Biden and his government to emphasize the importance of not going back to the previous deal.”
Biden has a strong belief in foreign policy based in part on personal relationships, analysts told CNN, but his friendship with Netanyahu is likely to be tested by political pressure in the coming months. The election is just one challenge, and it may not even be the first to strain the relationship.
The Biden administration’s direction on a nuclear deal with Iran is at the top of Israel’s priority list. The original nuclear deal was the source of some of the most bitter disputes between Obama and Netanyahu, highlighted in the Prime Minister’s decision to speak before a joint session of Congress in 2015, a speech Obama did not attend.
“Israel’s relations with Obama were icy, got off to a bad start and never recovered,” said David Makovsky, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. But Biden is someone Israelis know. It’s been around for a long time. ‘
Still, Biden is not expected to put Israeli-Palestinian negotiations very high on his agenda, said a former Obama official who worked on the region, who said the government “does not want to spend the political capital” on the issue.
With Biden, there won’t be the impression he wants to get [Netanyahu]said veteran diplomat Dennis Ross, who served as a Middle East negotiator and adviser to three US governments.
“That’s not what this relationship would be,” added Ross. “There was a perception growing up in Israel that Obama was not fair to Israel. Standing up against a US president who doesn’t look fair is seen as a good thing in Israel. Standing up against a US president who is seen as fair isn’t great. Biden is largely considered fair. “
CNN’s Andrew Carey and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.